


A New Sensation

by Person



Category: Planescape: Torment
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, good ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-24
Updated: 2010-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 02:08:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/144172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Person/pseuds/Person
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once Sigil had been Fall-From-Grace's haven.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New Sensation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Moontyger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moontyger/gifts).



Sigil had been her haven once.

She still didn't know what portal she had slipped through to reach it, what key she had held on her body or her tongue of within her mind that had made it open for her. In truth, she had no desire to know, for fear that the key would prove to be a thought and that knowing what it was would be enough to pull that thought to mind should she ever pass through the entrance to that portal again. Most times she tried to avoid the section of The Hive that she believed she'd appeared in all together, just to be sure, although she'd been so rattled at the time that she wasn't entirely sure that she remembered which area that was correctly.

Perhaps that doorway opening around her just when she needed it most had been some unspoken mercy of The Lady which drew her in. It would be nice to believe that she had some form of kindness within her, when almost all of the stories passed along were of her cruelty.

Or perhaps it was the symbol of torment, calling to her across the years and guiding her steps inevitably to the spot where she would meet its bearer and turn from her own path to follow his.

To eyes accustomed to the lower planes the city had seemed a shining place, even within The Hive. She had been a lost and fearful creature when she entered it, hunted for so long after a life spent trapped at tormented before that that she could hardly imagine what it would be like to be left in peace. She glossed over that period of her life in the rare times that she shared portions of her past with anyone. Enough that they knew she'd won her freedom in a game she knew she had no chance of losing and came to Sigil after. Enough that they knew she had lived, and done well for herself, and found peace. She had no desire to be pitied by any person by drawing their attention to the time between those two events, when winning her freedom _also_ meant that she'd cast away the one thing protecting her within the realm of her enemies.

But within Sigil she'd found safety for the first time in her life. No baatezu could attempt to destroy her, no tanar'ri lash out at her for being a traitor to their kind, not unless they wanted to risk drawing the eyes and the anger of The Lady of Pain (for even though the death of a single being would matter little to her, planar creatures battling it out in street filled with mortals would almost certainly _become_ a disturbance large enough to capture her attention), and in a way her difficult past proved to be a blessing in disguise; had her life not been painful enough to tear her hell-born instincts to shreds and leave her wanting nothing more than to hide away for years until she finally started to accept that she was in no danger she might have lashed out at the citizens around her like a wounded animal and gotten herself mazed before she'd even had a chance to realize no one had been attacking.

Although, in the state she'd been in then she would have likely been grateful to The Lady for her punishment. The safety of a maze, lifeless and barren without a single other being to be found, would have appealed to her even more than Sigil itself in those days.

The Hive wasn't known for its kindness to newcomers, but to her it had seemed a gentle and friendly place. When her clothing was worn to tatters there was always someone who would offer her their castoffs, when she didn't have a single coin to pay for a place to stay she was pointed towards places that would not turn away a stranger who needed a roof to sleep under for a night or two, and when she flew into a blind panic at the sight of a baatezu someone would always appear to point out somewhere that she could hide. She was honest enough with herself to realize that it wasn't just luck guiding her to the good and charitable people who could be found even in The Hive. She was a succubus, after all, no matter how far she held herself apart from her heritage. People would help her because she was beautiful, because they could not help but want to please her and if simple kindnesses were what brought her pleasure instead of the desires of the flesh then those were what they'd offer to her.

She was still living there when the Sensate found her and the course of her life changed once more. Fall-From-Grace had never even gotten the woman's name, a shame considering what an important figure she turned out to be in her life. She was old, near death, and chose to die following the principles of the faction to the end. When she'd heard rumors of a succubus in The Hive she'd thought that she could have one experience that no living member of the faction could claim, feeding the last flickering shards of her life to a succubus' lust. She didn't realize that she'd chosen exactly the wrong tanar'ri to approach.

She accepted her mistake with grace and they ended up spending the night together anyway, perfectly chastely, the woman teaching Grace about the Society of Sensation in response to her curiosity about what would drive anyone to seek out a member of her kind. In her words Grace had seen a new life, a life that she'd never have dreamed of wanting for herself until she learned that it was perfectly achievable. In her life she'd known a million forms of pain, of fear, of desperation. She'd known every way that things could go wrong and very little about what could go right. In Sigil she'd found a quiet type of contentment and thought that could be enough for her, that it would be terribly greedy to ask for anything else.

But within the Sensorium it wasn't seen that way. She had seen her share of suffering, and it had been time to start catching up on experiencing the pleasures she'd missed. That was what had drawn her to them, a shallow understanding of the core truths she eventually came to know but enough to give her a start.

Sigil had been her haven, beautiful and perfect and glorious to her. The place where she'd learned what it meant to be at peace, and then what it meant to be happy. It had taught her the beliefs that she held closest to her heart, fueling the warm healing magics that most people found out of place coming from a tanar'ri's hand.

But she could no longer rest there in contentment. The symbol of torment had worked its will on her, and now she could no longer walk its streets without remembering the scarred man who no longer shared the city with her.

The city had been her haven, but if she ever wanted to feel that peace again she'd need to throw herself back into the hell she'd left so far behind. But that... that was fine. She thought that she'd experienced all the lower planes could show her, but as she carefully planned out her rescue attempt she knew that this time around there would be new sensations for her to grasp.

She knew all about the pain and fear that could be found her, but this time _they_ would have a lesson to learn. This time she'd discover what it was like to walk those lands in all her strength, the strength that _he_ had helped bring out in her. And they would never draw another scream out of her again.


End file.
